Duplex printing within the framework of printers using an ink that needs a certain length of time to dry, such as ink jet printers, is delicate on account of the fact that the ink of a sheet printed on its front face can easily come into contact with members of the printer, such as the guiding walls, during the reversal of the sheet, giving rise to undesirable ink erasures and blotches.
A large size printer is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,490 in which the sheets slide, between the printing of the first and of the second face, in a long guiding channel the length of which is approximately three sheets. In this channel, the printed face touches the walls of the channel. For this reason, the arrangement described in this American patent cannot be used as part of ink printers having a more or less lengthy drying time, such as ink jet printers. Moreover, the printer described in this American patent is complex to build and has large overall dimensions, making it impossible to use for many applications.